Sewing-machine ruffler.



QNoQ 705,50. v Patentd July 22, I902.

. P. DIEHL. SEWING MACHINE RUFFLER.

(Application filed Oct. 26, 1901. (No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet l,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PHILIP DIEHL, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

SEWING-MACHINE RUFFLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 705,517, dated July 22, 1902. Application filed October 26, 1901; Serial No- 80,109. (No model.)

To aZ-Z whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP DIEHL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Elizabeth, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing- Machine Rufflers, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to a ruffling or gathering attachment intended more particularly for use in connection with high-speed powerdriven sewing-machines, and which attachment is provided with convenient means whereby it may be instantly thrown into or p out of operation without arresting or retarding the'action of the stitch-forming mechanism of the machine, so that continuous seams, partly plain and partly ruflledor gathered, as is required in the manufacture of shirts, skirts, and other articles, may be rapidly formed. To this end my approved attachment comprises a manually-operated device or lever so constructed and located as to be conveniently accessible to the operator, and which manually-operated device or lever has a yielding connection'with the rufflingblade carrier through an interposed spring. Thuswhen the spring forming the yielding connection referred to is compressed by the pressure of the thumb or finger of the operator on said device or lever the blade-can,

rier is moved into operative position, and thus also when said device or lever is released the spring will restore it to the position which it it occupies when the rufflingblade is inoperative.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front side elevation of a sewing-machine with my improved ruffling attachment applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a partial viewlooking from the left of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a plan view of the attachment and of a portion of the work-plate of the machine, with the needle-bar and presser bar in section on line 3 3, Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, n, denotes the work-plate of the machine, I) the arm, and c the head at the front end of the latter. The presser-bar d and vertically-reciprocating needle-bar e have their bearings, as usual, in the head 0, said needle-bar being provided with a pin or roller-stud, as f, for operating theruftler-bladecarrierorlever. Therufilerframe 9 is provided with a lug h for attachment ofsaid frame .to the presser-bar by a suitable set-screw, said ruffler-frame being provided, as usual, with a presser-foot 2,

which may be integral with said frame or suitably attached thereto. The ruffler-frame is also provided with a forwardly-extending armj, having a fixed pin or bolt is, on which is pivoted the ruffling-lever or blade-carrier m. The ruffling-blade n is preferably secured to"a holder 0, pivoted on a bolt 19 at the lower part of the blade-carrier m, said holder being acted on by a spring q, serving to press the serrated acting end or portion of said blade downward on the work or strip to be rufiied or gathered. It will be understood, however, that a spring ruffiing-blade might be attached directly to the blade-carrier m, as is common in the art.

The pivoted blade-carrier or lever m is provided with a rigid. and preferably integral arm 1", having laterally-extending lugs s 15, embracing the arm j of the ruffler-fraine, and thus serving as stops to limit the vibrating movements of the said blade-carrier. ally mounted on the bolt k is an arm or lever to, preferably extending forward toward the operator, so as to be conveniently accessible, said arm or lever being connected by a torsional spring 1) with the lugt on the arm 1' of the blade-carrier m. The bolt is, also supports an arm or contact-piece 10, which is preferably adjustable relative to the bladecarrierm by a screwat, secured in any desired position by a set-nut o.

The machine to which the attachment is applied has, preferably, guiding devices a z for directing overlapping pieces of fabric and an interposed ruffle-strip to the needle, said guiding devices being, as herein shown, socured to the work-plate ofthe machine and the upper of the said guiding devices being constructed as a hemmer to turn the edge of the upper piece of fabric inward and downward.

The operation of the invention is as follows: When the manually-operated device or lever u is in the raised position shown in full lines in Fig. 2, the stress of the torsional spring 1;,

connected with the blade-carrier m, will be Pivotso relaxed that said spring will not act to press the said blade-carrier toward the needle of the machine, and consequently the contact piece or arm 10 will be out of range of the pin or roller-studfon the needle-bar c, and the ruflling attachment will accordingly be inoperative. When it is desired to throw the rufller into action, the operator depresses the lever u to the position denoted by dotted lines in Fig. 2, thereby compressing the torsional spring 1;, causing said spring by its connection with the blade-carrier m to move said blade-carrier toward the needle, so that as the needle-bar descends the pin or roller-stud thereon will engage the contact-arm w and move the rufller-blade away from the needlebar, and when the needle-bar rises and the said pin or roller-stud clears the said contactarm the stress of the said compressed spring will force the ruflier-blade toward the needle to form a ruffle or gather, the size of which will be determined by the position of adjustment of the said contact-arm to relative to the bladecarrier m, as will be understood. Thus so long as the leveru is held depressed the ruffler will operate, but as soon as the said lever is released it flies upward instantly by the reaction of the spring 1), which reaction also has a tendency to restore the blade-carrier to its inoperative position (shownin full lines in Fig. 2) even before the said blade-carrier is positively forced to such inoperative position at the next descent of the needle-bar.

In many kinds of work for which this invention is adapted it is desirable to form only a few rufiles or gatherssay a dozen, more or less-at one time before the plain stitching is recommenced, and with a high-speed machine, running at two thousand stitches a minute or t-hereabout, a dozen stitches, and consequently a dozen ruffies or gathers, will he formed in the fractional part of a second, so that in the use of this invention as many rnifies or gathers as it is desirable to form at one time in many kinds of work will result from a quick or instantaneous touch of the operator on the manual device or lever u and which is as quickly released from operation by the recoil of the compressed spring 1). It will therefore be apparent that a convenien tlyarranged manually-operated device capable of performing its desired function under the action of a glancing touch of the finger of the operator and spring-retracted when released is adapted to be thrown into and out of operation much more quickly than a pedal or knee operated device, so that the present invent-ion is adapted for use with machines running at much higher speeds than the contrivances for elfecting similar results heretofore in use.

The invention is not to be understood as being limited to the details of construction herein shown and described or to any particular form of rniiling attachment, or to any particular construction of the manually-op erated throw-in device, as such details may be varied widely within the limits of mechanical skill without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Although the primary object of the invention is, as above expressed, to control the rufiiing operation, I nevertheless do not wish to be understood as limiting my invention to the use or application of the principle described for the control of the ruffler-blade or a rufliing operation unless so expressed in the claims, since I anticipate the utility of the same principle for the control of devices for other purposes than rufiling. For example, instead of using the invention in connection with a rufiling-blade the invention might be employed in connection with any other equivalent tool, as a trimmer or other device to be actuated by the mechanism of the sewingmachine, and which equivalent tool might be thrown into and out of operation by the construction embodied in the present invention without retarding or arresting theoperation of the sewing mechanism.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Pat out-- 1. In combination, a seam-forming mechanism, a ruliler-blade, reciprocating mechanism for the same, said mechanisms being so combined that the engagement of one with the other forces said ruflier-blade in one direction, a spring adapted when compressed to force said blade in the oppositedirection,and a manually-operated lever whereby said spring is compressed, substantially as described.

2. In combination, sewing mechanism, a tool operating upon the material being sewed, means for actuating the said tool, a manually-operated member, and a spring interposed between said tool and said member, which spring is so disposed as to be subjected to compression against or in opposition to said member by the action of said actuating means when said tool is thrown into action, and which spring is also so disposed as to permit said tool to be thrown out of action by its actuating means when said member is released; whereby the intermittent operation of said tool upon the material being sewed may be controlled by the operator.

3. A sewing-machine ruflling or gathering attachment provided with a manual device or lever and a movable ruflling-blade carrier, combined with a spring connecting said manual device or lever and said blade-carrier and which spring is so arranged as to be compressed by said manual device or lever when the ruffling-blade is to be thrown into action, and said spring being also so disposed as to throw the rufiiing-blade out of action when the manual pressure on said device or lever is released.

4. In a ruffiing or gathering device adapted for operative attachment to a sewing-machine, the combination with a movable bladecarrier, of a normally stationary, manual device 0r lever, of the needle-bar of the machine,and by which the said blade-carrier may be instantaneously thrown into action without retarding or arresting the stitch-forming operation of the machine, and a spring connecting said manual device or lever with said blade-carrier, so that the latter is shifted to .operative position by the compression of said spring, the tension of said spring being relaxed when the manual pressure on said device or lever is released.

5. The combination with a sewing-machine rnffling attachment, comprising a stationary frame and a movable ruffling-blade carrier, of

a pinor bolt fixed to said frame, a manual lever for throwing said blade-carrier into ac- [5 tion and which is pivotally mounted on said pin or bolt, and a torsional spring encircling said pin or bolt and connecting said'manual lever with said blade-carrier.

In testimony whereof I aflix my'signatu're 20 in presence of two witnesses.

PHILIP DIEHL.

Witnesses:

HENRY J. MILLER, HENRY A. KORNEMANN. 

